Culture

Remember when times were still ‘precedented’? Remember when Brexit-borne depression and the annual bout of post-Christmas Seasonal Affective Disorder were our major sources of misery? Practically halcyon days when compared to the last six solid months of shitshows that have been forced upon us by a global pandemic coupled with mind numbing government incompetence.

Half a year of learning and understanding more about the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has done little to add any degree of certainty to the UK’s hospitality industry, thrust from one set of restrictions to another, desperately offering takeaway pints one minute, throwing open the doors to millions eager to eat out to help out the next, with barely a second allowed to recover before being floored with a curfew induced gut punch.

It’s been a lot.

So as lockdown 2.0 looms large over Manchester and its spiralling infection rate, how are the city’s independents holding their own?

Just to reiterate…..It’s been a whole fucking lot.

“With every new announcement we have to change what we do again…”

It isn’t often that you have to shut up shop when only three months removed from a deluge of superlatives from Jay Rayner in The Guardian, but that is exactly the stark reality that hit Mary-Ellen McTague in March, when lockdown left her with very little option but to indefinitely close Chorlton favourite The Creameries.

And while huge swathes of the hospitality sector flung open their doors in July, it wasn’t until last month that Mary-Ellen was able to welcome a reduced amount of customers back through the doors of the Wilbraham Road establishment.

“We’ve only just reopened and have been doing 12 covers per service,” explains McTague, a veteran of Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck and very recent recipient of the Howard & Ruth Outstanding Achievement Award at this year’s Manchester Food and Drink Festival.

“From next week we’re going to up it to 18 covers but we’ll need an extra member of staff to make that happen. We’ve very slowly been feeling our way along. We knew we weren’t going to do enough business the first two weeks back to make ends meet but we needed to open and to get back up and running.

“With every new announcement we have to change what we do and just roll with the punches.”

So while one of the foremost food writers in the country may have been waxing lyrical about their treacle tart and sauerkraut liquor butter (NOT served together, I hasten to add. Although given McTague’s almost boundless talents in the kitchen, you wouldn’t bet against her making that combination work somehow) in December of last year, The Creameries were, to quote McTague in a Facebook post announcing their closure, ‘financially fucked’ in March, bluntly demonstrating the pandemic’s unflinching, remorseless steamrollering of even the most well respected, successfully operated businesses.

Oh and, y’know, the government, in their infinite fucking wisdom, have hardly made things any easier, implementing their 10pm curfew just as bars, restaurants and pubs across the city were beginning to find their feet again.

“Well that’s just bullshit, isn’t it?” laments McTague, when our conversation turns to the latest disasterclass from Westminster.

“I am 100% behind public safety. I want my customers to be safe, I want my staff to be safe, I want my children to be safe. We do now have additional Covid measures in place, like taking staff temperatures before shifts and extra sanitising, but you should be able to eat your meal off the toilet floor of any well run restaurant anyway. We were already obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene.

“This is why it’s so galling that the hospitality industry is getting it in the neck, because it really doesn’t follow the science regarding infections and where they’re happening. They’re not happening in restaurants and pubs. It’s absolutely crazy. There are no consequences for the government. They aren’t telling businesses to close fully so they don’t have to offer any financial compensation. As far as they’re concerned it’s only an hour, what difference does it make? Well it makes a massive difference to bills, to customer experience, to all sorts of things. It’s really sneaky.

“What’s also hilarious is, because we’ve got a Tory government, none of these ministers have ever worked in a bar to get through uni or anything. No one in the cabinet, unlike pretty much every other member of the population, has ever had a Saturday job or an experience of working in hospitality, because if just one of them had, they would have just gone ‘nah, this is a shit idea’.”

“They are killing the hospitality industry”

McTague’s frustrations have been echoed throughout the hospitality industry and particularly vehemently by Phil Bell, landlord of Northern Quarter bolthole The Ancoats Lad, which recently shuttered after Bell was informed he could host no more than seven customers at a given time.

In a post on the pub’s official Facebook page on 16th September, Bell wrote, “To all our loyal and loving customers, we have decided to close the bar until the mass deception is over. The council are not shutting us down, we have decided to take the lead as they seem to target us. To have a bar and make people stand at the door whilst telling them the rules of the establishment, where to go and sit, what to do when you order a drink, write your name here, and then turn people away because of decisions made in No 10. The new restrictions are the nail in the coffin of reality.

“We will be allowed seven/eight persons in our bar. Plus we have to social distance behind the bar. Can you imagine running a business on that basis? They are killing the hospitality industry, they are crashing the economy.

“We have thought about it, long and hard, what we are to do next, we have had our mind made up for us with the new restrictions. We believe it to be the largest pile of horse manure we have ever seen. Ninety percent of our customers are regulars above the age of 55 and through to 86 only two have had Covid, and that wasn’t serious. We have already received a threat of closure letter hence we cannot take any more stazi visits. 

“The Council are blatant liars, I asked them for some help and input because of the size of the bar….they refused.”

Given how perilously close we came to losing venues as sizeable and popular as Gorilla and Deaf Institute during the early days of lockdown, Bell’s words are a chilling indicator of the future for hidden gems and backstreet boozers across Manchester. If sprawling, multi floor venues and mega pubs can barely keep their heads above water, what chance do the dives and subterranean dens of the city have?

“We came out of lockdown as strong as we went into it…”

For every horror story and heartbreaking closure, there are, thankfully, a few saving graces. The success stories that revive the faith that, while everything is far from being alright, manage to keep the apocalypse at the door. At least for the time being.

One such story emanates from Edge Street chicken connoisseurs Yard & Coop, who’s poultry offerings have received far from paltry returns over the last few months, with Eat Out To Help Out driving record business throughout August.

“Eat Out To Help Out was amazing,” revealed owner Carl Morris, when we spoke with him in September, “August broke records for us both against last year and even against Christmas as it drove such large numbers of bookings. It was hard work. But our team did an incredible Job. 

“It gave us a much needed injection. We needed it. It gave existing customers a reason to return but also gave new people a reason to try us out.”

As anyone who wandered past Y&C’s corner of NQ in August will attest, Morris is far from being a buttermilk bullshitter when it comes to his review of the scheme. The buzz generated was legit, with socially distanced queues often snaking out of the door. But with Eat Out in the rear view window, what about the future?

“We offer great value anyway so don’t normally discount, but trade is good. We just need to focus on doing what we are good at. Making great buttermilk chicken. 

“Our outlook for the future is a bit uncertain, we don’t know about more lockdowns or limits,  but right now trade is good. We came out of lockdown as strong as we went into it”.

“We expected the spike to drop but it’s just kept going…” 

North of the city centre, Prestwich has long been teeming with a burgeoning independent scene, with new eateries and bars appearing with the regularity of a Tory policy u-turn. In March, the panic, as was the case with all suburban scenes, was that the very heart of the community could be ripped out, with smaller businesses unable to weather the initial covid storm.

Thankfully, mainstays such as Cuckoo, All The Shapes (and their freshly opened The Goods In) and The Church have not only survived, but prospered with various takeaway/delivery systems being put into place while EatNewYork have relocated and rebranded in the area as Triple B (Bagels, Burgers and Beer), with refined Scandi offerings from newly opened Osma, small plates from Paloma and incoming Latin BBQ banquets from Gorge also bolstering the village even further.

But what of independent community co-op Village Greens? Sitting in the shadow of behemoths such as Tesco and ALDI, the village shop with a vibe has proven to be wildly popular since it opened its doors in June 2014. And even with supermarket giants on their doorstep, VG have not slowed down over the last six months, with manager Chris Williams explaining how the only issue they’ve faced since March is keeping up with demand.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but we have traded a lot better. We’ve seen something like a 50% lift in what we would have expected to take. We saw a spike in sales and expected the spike to drop but it’s just kept going.

“As an independent the difficulties have been keeping up with demand. Some of the organic vegetable suppliers were bought out by some of the big supermarkets, so our suppliers had a hard time trying to get stock. It’s turned out to be really good for business but it’s been emotionally draining.

“We were the only place in Prestwich to have certain things at certain times, such as flour and yeast, which as you can imagine were in high demand. A lot of the things there were shortages of, we managed to maintain a supply of them, which was a lot of hard work. But we’ve managed to keep the community in sourdough starter, thankfully.”

Baking supplies and organic produce weren’t the only things being dished out behind the counter of VG, however, with Chris explaining how they’ve served the community in more personal ways.

“Initially we seemed like we were councillors as much as shopkeepers. When lockdown first happened and people started panicking, people would come in and offload, we’re a friendly local shop so people chat to us more than you might find at a big supermarket. Me and a few of my colleagues found that emotionally draining because people were in such mental distress, but we got through it together. I also got out on my little electric bike to deliver veg boxes to those people who were shielding and isolating and we’ve kept up with doing that every Monday and Thursday.

“It’s calmed down over the last couple of months but we’re still better off now than we were before all of this.”

Into the void…

Trying to guess what comes next is, frankly, anybody’s guess. Manchester’s nightlife tsar Sacha Lord continues to appeal to the government about changing their draconian stances regarding nightclubs and the 10pm curfew in general, while the ‘Cancel The Curfew’ campaign continues to gather momentum online, with not just Manchester, but the entire UK’s culture living on the brink of extinction if wiser heads fail to prevail.

Our pubs, bars and restaurants are battered and bruised, some are even tragically out for the count, while the rest brace themselves for further potential knockout blows. But if the last six months has taught us anything, it’s that Manchester’s hospitality scene is coming out swinging for the next few rounds.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off out until 9.59pm…

Five years ago, when it felt like the whole world was smearing pulled pork, Mac & Cheese and 80 variations of BBQ sauce over everything, quality pizza offerings in Manchester were few and far between.

Dough had been holding it down in the Northern Quarter for half a decade, a few people buzzed over Croma’s Hoisin duck and tandoori chicken efforts, with Slice’s gourmet Roman squares turning a few heads in Stephenson Square. And, of course, a newborn Crazy Pedro‘s was beginning to pump out fever dream experimentations for those of us who absolutely needed a Big Mac or chicken and waffles (or both) atop our slices in order to soak up the half dozen red cups of frozen margaritas we’d slung back at half two in the morning.

Naples descends on the North West…

Double Zero, with its BYOB policy and mind bendingly good Neapolitan dough developed ways in which to combine water, flour, salt and yeast the likes of which Manchester had never seen before. The only disappointed faces heading away from the Chorlton joint were those who had, once again, come up short when hoping to snag a table.

And while it’s doubtful that another pizzeria will ever come along to usurp Double Zero as the numero uno in South Manchester, the city centre has belonged to Rudy’s since 2016.

Four years, four more restaurants and three more cities later, and Rudy’s has not only cemented itself as the Capo di Tutti Capi of all things San Marzano and fior de latte in Greater Manchester (and, let’s face it, the UK as a whole), but it generated a surge of interest in Neapolitan pizza that has allowed the likes of fellow Ancoats favourites Ciaooo, Noi Quattro and Mackie Mayor’s Honest Crust to thrive, while also encouraging London mainstay Franco Manca to expand northwards at the back end of 2019.

But as the calendar crept over to the fiery hellscape that has been 2020, it has become apparent that room needs to be made for offerings with origins outside of the Amalfi coast.

“Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten/From the Battery to the top of Manhattan…”

As the sun’s descent casts a balmy shadow across the city streets, conversations are punctuated with the immensely satisfying crunch of pizza crusts folding and pepperoni grease pools puddling on paper plates.

Curious noises emanate from the crowd of post-work revellers as monstrous yet delicate slices of chewy, blistered pies are enjoyed by a crowd sat out in the streets. Flimsy white napkins dab at mouths as second and third orders are placed and IPA’s are swigged. Squint your eyes only a little and you’d be forgiven for believing that you were perched in a neighbourhood in Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan and not Edge Street in Manchester.

Yet this is where beloved Northern Quarter stalwart Common have carved out their own slice of the Big Apple, with NYC inspired pizza shop Nell’s sequestering themselves in the NQ bar’s kitchen since mid-February.

Nell’s is the brainchild of Common owner Jonny Heyes, who explained to us how he was always confident of his slice shop’s success.

“We started off just selling slices out the front door, it was really exciting. Now we’ve developed a following of regulars who keep coming back, keeping our Anthony Bourdain style band of outlaws in the kitchen busy.

“Not to slag off any other style of pizza, because I love Neapolitan pizza, but there’s so many more possibilities of what pizza can be. Neapolitans are very dogmatic, it’s all ‘you’ve got to use this type of flour and this type of cheese’ and I kind of hate that. I hate being told what I can and can’t do.

“We’re New York inspired but we’re Manchester made. We’re a local product that we want people to feel ownership of.”

Get Ready to be Dancing in the Street outside Corner Slice

In a sleepy suburb of Failsworth, Danny Broadbent grips the edge of a deep, rectangular aluminium pan, angling out his latest cheese rimmed creation inspired by the Motor City onto the work surface in front of him. The Coney Dog, with its smoked beef hotdog slices, dry beef chilli, white onions and American mustard, combines two of the most important Detroit exports since Motown and Iggy Pop. And, sitting alongside the nine regular pies in rotation at Corner Slice, it’s selling out in a matter of hours every night in Manchester’s newest and perhaps most adventurous dough based venture yet.

The response to the rectangular pies and their addictive cheese crown crusts has been, it’s safe to say, overwhelmingly passionate.

“We definitely didn’t expect it to blow up so much. Like, in the first week, the amount of chat that it’s got. We were sat here saying ‘we’ll be happy with 150 pizzas in the first week’ and we did that in the opening two days,” laughs Broadbent, alongside Corner Slice co-owner and best friend of 14 years Frank Brashaw.

Broadbent, with 14 years experience in Manchester kitchens under his belt (most recently at Fin Fish Bar and Tender Cow in Mackie Mayor), wasn’t content to go with the flow and instead veered away on his own path.

“I could have tried to make Neapolitan pizza, but would it have been as good as Rudy’s? No. Would it have been as good as Ciaooo? No. But can we be the best to make Detroit style pizza? Well, yeah. Although we’re the only place in Manchester doing it (laughs), but we’re setting a standard of our own.”

“It was risky, because people could have just gone ‘that’s not pizza, it’s not round’. I was convinced that was going to happen, ‘the sauce is on the top of my cheese and it’s not round? Take it back and start again.’ But not one person has said one bad word about it and I was convinced that we’d get something. Every customer has been amazing, really supportive.”

On The Map and Taking Over…

So whether it’s Corner Slice’s Mid Western influenced pies, Nell’s New Yorkers or the procession of picture perfect Neapolitans that preceded them over the last five years, one thing is absolutely undeniable – Manchester is now a bona fide pizza city. And it’s about to enter the most exciting stage of its evolution so far…

Here are some recommendations from the EATMCR community

LYDIA WAKELAM @lydwak
‘Double Zero – Sprinkle those extra jalapeños on my head while I sleep’
Double Zero’s fluffy, chewy pizza bases have been a big doughy comfort blanket for me since I moved to Manchester three years ago. BYOB, always, sit with all your friends but never ever share.

Gus & Rick (SNACC DIARIES) @snaccdiaries
‘Nells… MARINARA or MARGHERITA’
Gus is a margs man. They’re a true test of pizza, if you can get them right the others will probably follow. Where as I’m a marinara man. The most underrated and overlooked pizza in my opinion.

JOE BAIAMONTE (EATMCR Culture Editor) @joebaia88
‘Sitting by the kitchen at Rudy’s.’ 
Whether in Ancoats or Peter St, sit by the kitchen and watch your pizza get made. It’s a near religious experience. I usually rotate between the Calabrese, Ancozzese and Carni, with about five Menabreas and a massive smile on my face.

Manchester’s Northern Quarter is so well known for artisan eats, craft beer and yoga, that pretty much no one can recall the textile warehouses which dominated the area before its regeneration in the 90s.

Among those that do, are the owners of the Northern Quarter’s family-run ‘rice and three’ curry cafes that emerged as a response to the warehouse workers’ demand for quick, affordable lunches.

Rice N’ Three please

The concept is a simple one and has barely changed since the handful of ‘rice and three’ cafes opened over thirty years ago. A plate or takeout box, stuffed with three portions of freshly made curry, served on a bed of fluffy rice. Always incredible value, the meal is now usually six quid a pop.

This n that

At one of the city’s longest-running ‘rice and three’ eateries, This & That, we’re joined by owner Ismail Mallu. He moved to Britain from Gujarat aged eight, taking over This & That in the mid 80s.

Keen to find out how some of This & That’s familiar dishes such as chicken masala and lamb korma differ from those offered by British Indian restaurants on Manchester’s Curry Mile and beyond, we ask Ismail about his recipes. “In those restaurants the meat is pre-cooked dry. When a customer orders, their curry is cooked individually in a frying pan, with spices added depending on how the customers want it,” he explains. For him, it’s like artificial flavouring, because the spices don’t have enough time to develop flavour. “Like they do back home in India, we cook in more traditional large pots for an hour or more, until the spices are thoroughly cooked,” he says.

Chapati Café

Family recipes are also at the heart of Chorlton’s Chapati Cafe, which serves dishes such as guar, a distinctive cluster bean curry cooked with aubergine and potato. Inspired by her mother’s fusion of traditional Gujarati cooking and flavours from Tanzania, owner Priti Chauhan-Hall says Chapati Cafe’s dishes are curries you can eat every day. “You go to an Indian restaurant for a special occasion, for that richer dish, whereas our curry is a lot lighter,” she tells us.

Bangladesh, Pakistan & India

Priti is keen to stress what sets the ‘rice and three’ concept apart. It’s the commitment to staying true to the food you grew up with: “In ‘rice and three’ restaurants, you kind of get the feel for what area of India or Bangladesh or Pakistan people are from,” she says.

Café Marhaba

Cafe Marhaba opened in Back Piccadilly in 1992. Run by father and son duo Nazir and Abdul Ahmen, the takeaway is renowned for authentic Punjabi flavours. “To set ourselves apart, we’ve also got a traditional clay oven,” explains Abdul.

He demonstrates how the naan dough, which consists of flour, oil, sugar and salt is rolled into a ball and flattened, before being lowered into the tandoor. Baking for a matter of minutes, our naan comes out incredibly soft, fluffy and moreish – a perfect accompaniment to the chickpea, spinach and cauliflower curries we try.

Street Food Values

Despite their competitive prices and truly authentic recipes, some of the ‘rice and three’ curry cafes are suffering from increasing rents and competition, not least from popular Indian street food restaurants. Is it possible then, that the ‘rice and three’ concept might have to adapt, or face extinction?

At Cafe Marhaba, change is already evident in the increasing amount of vegan options available, while Chapati Cafe are expanding their offer by serving south Indian breakfasts at weekends.

The Joy of Simplicity

For well-established places like This & That, competition is part and parcel of running the business, and Ismail has seen many a food trend come and go since those first years serving the warehouse workers. “It doesn’t matter who opens next door to me, my customers know that my food tastes the same,” he says. “Because of that, they keep coming back.”

Here are some recommendations from the EATMCR community

LUCY NOONE BLAKE (Pear Comms) @lucinoone7 
‘Chapati Cafe.. It’s like a curry orchestra’ 
Hands down for me it’s got to be the Chapati Cafe in Chorlton. Veggie options are amazing and each curry works just beautiful on it’s own…But when you mix them together…It’s like a curry orchestra’

SAX ARSHAD (of Evelyn’s / Mughli) @saxarshad
‘Kabana..Hot Since 82’
I’ve been hanging around here since the 80s and been eating Rice n Three since I could walk! The best for me is Kabana. My order is Karahi Lamb, Keema Peas, Bombay potatoes. Proper taste of Lahore’

WILL TRAMP (Homoelectric) @willtramp
‘Marhaba for them fluffy Naans’
Always Cafe Marhaba for them fluffy as fuck clay oven Naans..